Peter Cooper

Peter Cooper is an amateur naturalist and wildlife photographer, enrolled to study Zoology at the University of Exeter in 2013. He writes articles and posts photographs on his blog about the diversity of the natural world and the current issues surrounding it. He is particularly keen to show that young people care about wildlife and are prepared to conserve it in the future.

When people think of “diversification” of farming, it tends to be along the lines of ditching sheep for alpacas, or setting up farm shops and public orchards. But all this is fairly pedestrian compared to Devon farmer Derek Gow’s unique specialisation.

The argument about the badger cull is certainly the most noteworthy wildlife conflict within the UK in recent years – but there are also many other individual species that have received warrants for their extermination.

It’s been nearly three months since wildlife conservation in the UK was told ‘it wasn’t really working.’ If I had a pound for every time I’ve read the depressing statistic, in the ‘State of Nature’ report, that “60 per cent of Britain’s wildlife is in decline, with 32 per cent dramatically so” I’d probably have enough money to resolve all of our country’s biodiversity declines at once.

There are many conservation volunteering opportunities but few have a real impact on conservation. One that does is Elephant Human Relations Aid, based in Swakopmund, Namibia. EHRA seeks to resolve the dramatic tensions between local elephant herds and the communities with whom they have to co-exist. This small charity is already having a positive impact on the lives of both man and elephant – and volunteers are playing a real part in the process as I found when I joined EHRA back in January 2013.

Where are the young naturalists these days? Their scarcity has become increasingly apparent in recent years, and so worrying that the National Trust published a paper focused entirely on the issue, and was discussed in grave concern by both Sir David Attenborough and Chris Packham.

Sir David Attenborough continues to expand his incredible repertoire with his latest project, ‘The Penguin King 3D’, a dramatic tale of the incredible life lead by a male King Penguin on the island of South Georgia. I spoke with him ahead of the DVD release to discuss the new dimensions the documentary adds to the world of wildlife film-making.